Youcef Nadarkhani

Press release of the day, from the State Department, issued late yesterday, under the headline "Persecution of Religious Minorities in Iran":

We are dismayed over reports that the Iranian courts are requiring Youcef Nadarkhani to recant his Christian faith or face the death penalty for apostasy – a charge based on his religious beliefs. If carried out, it would be the first execution for apostasy in Iran since 1990.

He is just one of thousands who face persecution for their religious beliefs in Iran, including the seven leaders of the Baha'i community whose imprisonment was increased to 20 years for practicing their faith and hundreds of Sufis who have been flogged in public because of their beliefs.

While Iran's leaders hypocritically claim to promote tolerance, they continue to detain, imprison, harass, and abuse those who simply wish to worship the faith of their choosing.

We join the international community in continuing to call on the Iranian government to respect the fundamental rights of all its citizens and uphold its international commitments to protect them.

Nothing on this today that I could find in print editions of either the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. Nothing even, as of this moment, in Goldblog. Nothing on the Web site of Human Rights Watch, the George-Soros-funded outfit that seems more interested in describing Jews as a "race" and likening Israeli Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres to leaders of the segregationist American South during the Jim Crow era. Where are all the anti-death-penalty left-wing editorial writers and activists when they are needed most?